Tuesday, February 28, 2017

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO INCREASES PRESENCE IN DULUTH

DULUTH-SUPERIOR HARBOR

Minnesota Public
Radio (MPR) has increased its profile in the Duluth-Superior market by
purchasing the license for KZIO 104.3 FM and a related translator. The purchase
price is $300,000. Though no announcement has been made, it is anticipated that
104.3 will become the new home for The
Current.

The Current is now heard in Duluth on translator W215CG
90.9 FM, which simulcasts WSCN-HD2. The Duluth market appears to be important
for MPR.MPR also has full-power
repeater stations for its News and Classical regional networks.

The Current in Duluth has added a few hours of local
original programming but during most hours it repeats KCMP from St. Paul. Duluth-Superior
is one of the most competitive noncom markets in the nation. By our count, when
104.3 becomes a noncom there will be 12 noncommercial stations serving the
market.

A Noncommercial Dial Guide for the market is on the right.

An upgrade of The
Current’s coverage of the market likely means more problems for local Triple A
station KUMD.

As we reported in early February, according to Nielsen Audio, KUMD
lost 42% of its weekly cumulative listeners between Fall 2015 and Fall 2016.
Ratings for The Current in Duluth are not available but the perception is that
The Current gained many of KUMD’s listeners.

BUT WHY DULUTH?

The metro
population of the “Twin Ports” is around 280,000 and it is the nation’s 165th
biggest metro. It is an international seaport. But the area has been
losing population for a number of years. Wages, education levels and housing costs
are lower than the national average.

Meanwhile, MPR
serves two other out-state markets with much more potential for The Current: Fargo-Moorhead and Sioux
Falls. Both markets are around the same size as Duluth-Superior but have been
growing at fast paces. MPR operates two full-power stations in Fargo-Moorhead
(metro population: 240,000). In Sioux Falls (metro population 252,000), MPR
operates three full-power stations. Two of the stations repeat MPR News.

Fargo-Moorhead is a
college town where wages and education levels are far above the national
average. Sioux Falls is the home of Sanford Health which has brought thousands
of highly paid researchers and physicians to the city. Neither market currently
has a Triple A station.

TALIA SCHLANGER BECOMES
HOST OF WORLD CAFÉ

As expected, WXPN
has named Talia Schlanger to succeed David Dye as host of World Café. The
change is official on Monday, April 3rd. Schlanger, 31, has been an
interim host for the past several months.

Schlanger’s choice
is a generational change for the program. She had been a journalist, producer
and host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), based in Toronto. She was also an actress in
professional theater productions, including the first US national tour of Green
Day’s American Idiot.

Schlanger is a
music fan first. She told the Philadelphia Inquirer [link]:

“Like our listeners, I’m here
as a music fan first. Discovering, sharing and connecting over artists is our
collective passion, and it’s my mission to serve that as best I can on World
Cafe. David Dye is so beloved and respected because for 25 years, audiences
have been able to feel the genuine curiosity, excitement and care he has for
the music he plays and for the artists who make it.

I know this is a big
change, but I hope our devoted World Cafe crowd will feel the same degree of
passion and care coming from me as we charge forward with amps blaring.”

WXPN will pay
tribute to David Dye for his 25 years as host and producer of World Cafe with a private special event
in Philadelphia on March 1. Listeners, members and donors are being invited to
a tribute concert for Dye this Friday, March 3rd.

MORE “TRUMP BUMPS” IN
NIELSEN AUDIO PPM JANUARY RATINGS

In San Francisco
both NPR News stations, KQED and KALW, had impressive one-year gains in the
January 2017 PPM estimates, compared with January 2016. KQED’s estimated 984,500
weekly cumulative is likely a record high.

KALW appears to be coming to life
with a 35% increased in estimated weekly listeners during the same period.

There was no bump
for KERA in the Dallas-Fort World metroplex.There appears to be fluid situation among CCM listeners. Education Media
Foundation’s K-LOVE repeater KYDA is now the top noncom station in the market.